293. Feeling God’s Love Through Other People- From God to Jerry to You

What does it mean to feel God’s love through another person?

In this episode of From God to Jerry to You, Jerry L. Martin reflects on an early moment in his relationship with God, when he was asked to “enter My heart.” 

The request frightened him, and when he asked for help, God answered: “Let Abigail love you. Feel My love through her.”

That experience leads Jerry to explore how divine love becomes real through romantic love, family love, friendship, intimacy, tenderness, and human connection. Jerry considers the transcendent quality of love, the presence of God within our closest relationships, and the possibility that loving others is one of the deepest ways we become partners with God.

Listen for a thoughtful reflection on God’s love, spiritual intimacy, and the sacred power of loving and being loved.

Get the books:

Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age

God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher

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Continue the conversation with Ultimate Questions on calling, divine guidance, and how we recognize what is ours to do:

https://substack.com/@ultimatequestions

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Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue. 

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Transcript

Scott  Langdon

[ 00:00:17,229 ] This is God: An Autobiography, The Podcast — a dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin. He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered — in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.

Scott  Langdon

[ 00:00:58,159 ]Episode two ninety three.  Welcome to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. I'm Scott Langdon. At one point in his journey with God, Jerry was asked by God to enter into God's heart. He wanted to obey but felt afraid. When he confessed his fear, God told Jerry something very profound and taught Jerry a lesson in how God actually loves us every day of our lives.

Scott  Langdon

[ 00:01:36,149 ]When God talks about loving us and being with us in our suffering, it's more than just a statement. The ways in which God loves us constantly show up in many different forms and encounters throughout our day. And God is always right there in the midst of it. Here's Jerry to reflect more deeply on God's love for all of us. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:02:26,319 ]I was thinking this morning about one of my early experiences in my God encounter back when it was all very, very new to me. And sometimes God would tell me something to do that really I had no idea how to do that. I would just kind of, okay, I'll pitch in and give it a try. And one of these was when God said one day, "I want you to enter My heart." Okay, enter the heart of God, you know, what on earth?

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:03:00,959 ]But I always would just kind of, well, “I have no idea what You mean, but I'll just try to relax and get into the spirit of this and do whatever this means” and, actually in this case it sounded scary to me.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:03:17,599 ]Like out of body travel or something like that, supposed to go dive elsewhere into the heart of God and somehow the heart of God seemed like going into the heart of a hurricane or something.  Something, kind of super powerful. And so, how to do that and, how to get over the fear of it. And so I prayed,I was willing to give this a try, but it did seem scary and so I probably said to God, please, be with me, give me Your love while I do while I attempt this.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:03:57,239 ]And God's reply was, “Let Abigail love you. Feel My love through her.” Let Abigail love you. Feel My love through her.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:04:13,399 ]Well, this morning I was thinking, that has some implications beyond just God telling Jerry something one day, a particular instruction.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:04:23,179 ]It means that when you're loved by somebody that's sort of empowered or energized by divine love, that this is how God loves us, you might say. That that I could feel God's love through Abigail's love for me

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:04:45,159 ]We have all the ordinary bonds of humanity. You don't seem to need a god element, though maybe you do.There's the natural perpetuation of the species, there's lust, there's the natural interest in one person and the other, there's the likability. You meet somebody you really enjoy the company of and fall in love, and you have compatible values and ways of life and so on. So there are all of these ordinary ingredients into love. And yet when you think about it, there is a kind of magical ingredient.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:05:25,369 ]There is something beyond just liking one another and just having a prurient interest in one another. There is something more than that. 

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:05:38,309 ]And that may be a reflection of the divine element that comes into it, that we have actual love and not the simple perpetuation of the species or this simple sociability of human beings as social animals, but there is this, as I say, it feels kind of magical. There's something transcendent or super duper about real love. There of course, I'm thinking about romantic love.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:06:07,299 ]But family love is also extremely powerful and is not just again, the natural tendencies of each species to take care of their little ones. It goes way beyond that. You know, the depths of human beings is such that to have the element of interest in our own children and our own siblings and our parents and so forth is really quite extraordinary.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:06:38,159 ]And so I was thinking about that and also remembering the early early experience, particularly when this God presence was sort of new to me, but I remember making love to Abigail which almost coincided, with we became an item. I think God spoke to me during the first year that Abigail and I were going together, some months into it in fact, less than a year. And so God has been this kind of partner from the beginning of my relationship with Abigail and sometimes in making love.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:07:15,299 ]And I would almost think, you know, it's like God, the divine presence was so palpable that I would want to say, "Butt out! I'm doing this," you know, it's like we don't need another person in bed with us. We don't need a divine person joining this activity. But in fact, when I love Abigail, when I love my children, my parents, my family, my best friends, you have beloved friends as well, and that's God loving them. It's not just me loving them. It certainly is me primarily and foremost and up front.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:07:55,599 ]But it's like divinely energized and it's the divine presence flowing through me too, these people I love. I guess my other reflection is this says a lot about the divine nature, what it is to be God. You know, Abigail always says God can't mail a letter. An awful lot of divine work has to be done by us. And what's more important in the world than our loving each other? That's sort of the summit of achievement.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:08:29,919 ]That's more important than Nobel prizes in chemistry and being the richest person and being a movie star and all these kinds of things. No, our bonds of love are the most valuable things in the universe. And this is how we are God's partners. We are God's partners insofar as God loves us, but it's kind of a distant and at least from our thinking, a kind of abstract thing. It's hard for us to get hold of. It's sort of nebulous and vacuous and oceanic or something, but not very palpable and real and present.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:09:07,439 ]The way the divine becomes present in our loving one another is precisely through our own embodiment and expressions of love and being loving and tender and kind to each other, and in that way we are our instruments in bringing God's love into the world. And so that casts a somewhat different light on this notion I've sometimes received in prayer of being partners with God. It wasn't always quite clear partners in doing what.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin

[ 00:09:44,219 ]Sometimes it seems to be more like in resisting evil or fighting injustice, something like that. I think that's all true too. But here's a much more intimate way in which we are God's partners and God is our partner.

Scott  Langdon

[ 00:10:15,329 ]Thank you for listening to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. Subscribe for free today wherever you listen to your podcasts and hear a new episode every week. You can hear the complete dramatic adaptation of God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin by beginning with Episode 1 of our podcast and listening through its conclusion with Episode 44. You can read the original true story in the book from which this podcast is adapted — God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher — available now at amazon.com, and always at godanautobiography.com. Pick up your own copy today. If you have any questions about this or any other episode, please email us at questions@godanautobiography.com, and experience the world from God’s perspective — as it was told to a philosopher. This is Scott Langdon. I’ll see you next time.